Today's lineup

Time to get back on the right track. D-Lowe on the mound and our infield has a combined 14 postseason apperances, 12 All-Star Game appearances, two Rookie of the Year Awards, five Silver Slugger awards, two batting titles, one Rawlings Gold Glove award and one MVP award.

Congrats are in order for Stan Johnston, our trainer, who is headed to the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh.

And, since the bullpen’s been taking a lot of heat lately, consider this: Takashi Saito has not allowed a run in his last 11 appearances (12.2 IP), lowering his ERA from 2.62 to 1.82. Since May 6, he has posted a 0.45 ERA (1 ER/20.0 IP), the lowest mark of any pitcher in the Major Leagues with at least 20 innings pitched, ahead of Juan Rincon (0.77) and B.J. Ryan (0.79).

Here’s tonight’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Drew, RF

Kent, 2B

Ethier, LF

Izturis, 3B

Martin, C

Lowe, P

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41 Comments

Congrats Stan, with a roster full of vets, he no doubt deserves any praise coming his way. Likewise with Saito, he has been a revelation for our pen. Without Takashi, who would be closing? It’s too bad we couldn’t have found Saito a few years earlier, I think he could have been a stud SP. Happy to see Andre in there, Matt clearly needs a blow. Is tonight the night our boys explode?? The SEA pitcher is young with a good arm and impressive breaking ball, I would like to see our hitters attempting to go oppo 2night a little more. I was lucky enough to see Lowe in Oak in that marathon game, he had lights out stuff, let’s hope he can help right this ship. We need a spark…big time, let’s hope it comes 2night. A fist pump every now and then shows there’s a pulse, the laid back approach to the game imployed by the coaching staff is reflected by the players lack of emotion. Not that it’s a bad thing, I just want to see some more passion. That’s how you break out of a slump, give some EXTRA effort,and be cautious to not press. Ah, isn’t it great to be a fan and have all the solutions!<Idiot =/

I have to agree with dreed209@yahoo.com a little emotion about now would be a good thing. The only exception would be Lowe, last time out he was a wreck and I think a bit of a runaway train. If he stays solid and the defense plays well behind him we can’t help but succeed !!
Go Izzy, Go Dodgers !!!

i have to disagree gary, lowe was lights out last time out. he had a two hitter going into the eighth inning. Grady should have taken him out at the first sign of trouble but no in the bully was warming up. then lowe gave up three runs to blow the lead against the a’s(i was at the game). but this was grady’s lack of confidence in a horrible bullpen. the worst move colletti made was seo for sanchez.

I have a theory about Seo, I think when we traded one of his best friends,Mr.Hee-Sop, we traded away the real Seo. He was fantastic in the WBC, but in a Dodger uni, not so much. Seo is a guy who needs the corner strikes and lately, for whatever reason, umps have been tight with him, thus he has to put in the nitro zone to get a srtike called. It was nice to see Grady get fired up last night, although he was incorrect in his argument(oops). Our US soccer team is playing with more purpose than LA right now. If we fall behind 2 night, perhaps Grady intentionally gets tossed to light a fire. Or maybe he sits back and plays it smooth, again. Here’s to another chance to snap that the slump, it will be interesting to see how the entire club responds to some adversity, hopefully alot better than last year. Let’s go Lowe! Go Big Blue!

Mason, I never said Lowe pitched bad, I said he was a wreck !! Even Vinny made comment that Lowe was showing way too much emotion on the mound !! I had to agree. He was pressing and his emotions got the best of him. Like a gambler he had “Tells” that pretty much gave his hand away !! I too wish we still had Sanchez, but we don’t and we have to move on. You have to admit Ned has made this a competitive team and even in the face of all the injuries we’re competitive. Our only problem is that none of these guys know what their roles are and becasue of the uncertainty they’re put into situations they’re not prepared for, Baez especially !! Gagne’s best tool is his confidence in what he can do and when you lose it your scared and flying by the seat of you pants. These guys need to believe in theselves like they did in the beginning of the year. It’ll come back. It might take a bench clearing or a team meeting or something, but they’ll get it back !!
Go Dodgers !!!

What I’m worried about is Broxton’s slump. In May, he was an absolute beast, but since he gave up those runs in Gagne’s save apperance, he’s been on a slide. His K rate is still solid, but his biggest problem is giving up the long ball. He gave up 2 homers from May 1 to June 10, but from June 11 to June 21, he has given up 3. The cause of this, getting behind in counts, is something to work on.

Dreed, I disagree, mainly because Seo’s last season showed a lot more success. Look at his numbers, and he’s throwing strikeouts, but he needs a side session or something to work on cutting down on the walks. The thing is that he’s not even streaky. He’ll be good a couple games and bad the next. I don’t think last season was a fluke, but I think that enough scouting has been done on him to render him ineffective, but he’s effective against everyone in the NL West except the Diamondbacks (look at his splits). I think he’ll just have to keep constantly innovating stuff he does with pitches in order to be effective, unless he starts throwing harder.

Jackson maybe not, but probably Tiffany. Tampa is trying to develop a good young rotation, I just wonder if they’ll be able to retain Scott Kazmir for the future.

I like how Grady has been referring to Cesar Izturis as a “kid” despite the fact that he’s been in the majors since 2001, has been a gold glove winner and an all-star, and is only about 2 1/2 years younger than Furcal. The best I can come up with is that he’s good.

Several times in the last few days people in this blog have suggested trading Izturis. I think you are all nuts! I know the team needs pitching, but Izzy is twice the shortstop that Furcal is. Anyone who saw Izzy’s Gold Glove season should be ashamed to even consider letting him play for any other team. There are few things more exciting than watch him play, and I hope he proves that to Little. The team will find other ways to improve pitching. This team has made the mistake too many times in the past of trading away their best players. Lets not do it again!
Go Izzy ! GO DODGERS !

4 ab 3 hits 1 walk HAIL CESAR! I love that cutoff play he made in front of Furcal. Maybe this will make furcal a better SS by allowing him more room at third. Trading Izzy would be as bad if not worse then the lo duca trade.Lets see if Fucal can score izzy and martin now! Go Blue!

Nope. Looks like Lowe is gonna finish this one himself, could it be our 1st complete game?! If not, I’m comfy with Saito, but you gotta love the grit displayed by Lowe and Co. 2night. Congrats on a big night back 4 Cesar.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you have just witnessed the beginning of a win streak. Up next you see your Los Angeles Dodgers take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Their good starter is pitching Saturday, but the Dodgers have shelled him before. Kudos to Derek Lowe on his complete game and victory, and

great to see a win. about a trade, the trade of sanchez really hurt, and the trade to tampa bay neted us two pitchers who without a doubt have cost us being in first place by 5 or 6 games. not many pitchers on the trade market (that are really going to be traded) would help.
trading the future is not the answer, but depending on perez, tomko, seo, and sele

is also scary.

wish we had signed beltre instead of j.d. drew

and had sanchez back. the right answer I don’t have

the n.l. west is not strong, if grady can find some answers in the bullpen we should be able to win the divison, but we do need better pitching from the starters to help the bullpen.

long way to go, lets hope for more help from the minors, and believe in the release.

OK here is a possible senerio. Nomar is doing way too well at first and at the plate to not want to sign him for the future. This will block Loney and I know he is a **** good 1st baseman as well but,if we could get a trade with the fish for Josh Johnson (rookie phenom)who has 2 losses from the pen and has not allowed more then 3 runs in either of his 2 losses as a starter(6-2) for Loney and take your pick from seo perez+ money or kuo carter Hamulak houlton or any of the other dead weight pitchers we are still retaining.I think we still have a 4 year plan and then some.It will shore up the starting pitching by a solid start and put the rotation back on balance.
And WOW I said it before and I’ll say it again Izzy Makes The Starting Pitching SOOOOO much Better. Go Blue!!!

“Trading Izzy would be as bad if not worse then the lo duca trade.” – You mean the trade that got us our best starting pitcher Brad Penny? Meanwhile the much younger Russ Martin is putting up numbers that are just as good as LoDuca’s for way less money.

Izzy needs to hit if he’s going to be useful at third base. If all he can do is field then he’s no more valuable than Juan Castro or Alex Cora.

Trapp don’t compare Izzy to those two guys. They never been to an All-Star game or won a gold glove. Izzy has been improving as a hitter every year and he’s only going to get better and make everyone else better with his energy! Go Izzy this is the spark we needed!

what I ment earlier was that
when beltre turned down the dodgers 50 million, or so, the dodgers then signed drew for 55 million. if the dodgers would have up their offer, maybe beltre would have signed. of course the 62 million he got is higher,

if we would have signed beltre, we could not have afforded drew. I think beltre would have had a better year in l.a. than in seattle last year. hated to see the dodgers invest 8 or 9 years in beltre, then see him walk away after one good year, and only being 25 years old

well, lowe did a fabulous job on the mound last night, but off the mound……what a disgrace!! the vulgar jesture he made with his bat, while on deck, that was aimed at his mistress hughes from foxsports was an embarrassment to the organization. someone please have a chat with him. show some respect for the uniform!

Hey Trapp76 do you remember last year without LoDuca? it was a very pitiful thing happening behind the plate and penny wasn’t around to pitch. Yes i like penny but it took a year and a half before we Got the real penny! Not to mention that Mota went with that trade what would you give to have mota back? Yes it was a Bad Trade…As far as the Beltre thing went I felt he was juiced that year and he’s done nothing to show otherwise except for his playing at Chavez revine this week.what you have to remember though is that we were paying Shawn green 17+ mil to be mediocre and hundlys blow it out yer butt contract with dreiforts equally BS contract not even on the bench.The payroll was screwed. Our middle infield was the best in the Majors defencivly and was making under 2 mil combined.It is now 20 mil+ and the defence isn’t there and hitting is better but not great.
In Closing I have to say that Dodger pitching has always gone hand in hand with Dodger Defence.Our Bats have never been better then this year in recent memory but if you don’t defend the pitching with Great fielding then the pitching won’t be great. The Good Teams will always beat you 4-2 and the bad teams will lose 10-2.We don’t want to be the atlanta braves of old and win the division every year to lose badly in the playoffs We are Dodger Fans and We want it all.We should all be happy again after this weekend when we have a 4 game winning streak and are back in first place.

Penny pitched for almost the entire season last year, he hasn’t been on the bench for a “year and a half” and right now our pitching would be in a whole lot of trouble without him. The catching situation was pitiful last season, no argument there, but it wasn’t the sole reason that the team didn’t do well. Mota hasn’t pitched well at all since he was traded.

As far as the middle infield……would you really rather have Izturis and Cora than Kent and Furcal? I know Furcal is off to a slow start but his career numbers show that he’ll get better. Kent led the team in HRs last season, he was the best hitter on the team. The defense actually isn’t too bad this year, the Dodgers are the 7th best defensive team in the NL. Its the pitching that has been the problem, more specifically the bullpen (aside from Saito) and the backend of the rotation. If they can get those situations figured out (and I think they will), then they’ll be just fine.

It always comes back to pitching. Can’t believe the pen will remain this bad over the course of the year.
Cesar and Cora were the foundation of the best defense in the league that year, but that was then. Personally I’d like to see Cey on third, but I don’t think we’ll get that either. 76 is right. The real Raffy will show himself. Mean time lets support him as we’ll need him if the team is to make a successful run this year.

I agree that Furcal will get better, but I still think Izturis is the better defensive player. However, if Izzy keeps doing well at third, so much the better. You have to love the defensive potential with both Furcal and Izzy on the right side. And it looks more and more like Mueller is out for the season or longer.
HAIL CESAR ! GO DODGERS !

I think Cesar is the better defensive player also, but Little seems committed to Furcal. Still a long way to go with lots of twists and turns, though.
Let’s hope Tomko’s injury is not long lasting. There does not seem to be anybody else ready in the minors right now and not much available from other teams yet. Besides, someone might get carried away and try to trade Cesar.

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